Roped Into You

by Marie Rochelle

  “You’re welcome, ma’am. Enjoy your day,” the guy said and hung up.

  Leila placed the phone back on the nightstand next to the bed then got out. She made her way towards the bathroom because she wanted to get a quick breakfast and hit the road. After last night, she didn’t want to spend a second longer in this place then needed.

  ****

  The slight breeze coming through the open window blew against Clayton’s bare chest as he lay in bed and thought about the day he had ahead of him. He loved relaxing in bed early in the morning before Sam got up, but he kept his pajama top on the back of a chair next to the bed in case his daughter ran into the room.

  However, today he didn’t have to worry about a sudden appearance by Sam because her grandparents had taken her for the night and were going to bring her back around lunch time but it would probably be later. Donna’s parents spent a lot more time with their only grandchild since their daughter’s death. He didn’t mind because they were good people and treated his baby girl like a princess.

  He was also lucky enough to have Tony Thurston as his foreman so on the days he didn’t feel like getting out of bed, he knew Blue Horn was being run the way he wanted. For some reason, the past couple of days had been harder on him. He didn’t know if it was because Donna’s birthday was coming up or simply because he was getting older. But he didn’t have the love for life he used to before his wife died.

  Donna would still be here now if she had listened to him and gone to the hospital like he’d suggested, but she wanted to stay home to finish working on a dress for Sam’s upcoming birthday.

  He never thought about it before, but his little girl wore girly outfits until her mother died and then after that she started dressing like a boy.

  Clayton wouldn’t forget the day he came home from town and found Sam had cut off most of her long beautiful red hair.

  He’d taken her into town the same day to get it fixed and to his disappointment the rest had to be cut off to even it out. He hated it, but he had no clue how to style a little girl’s hair, so he’d just kept it short.

  Clayton hoped that this new nanny would be able to bring a feminine touch to Sam’s life because the last three women only focused on him. His little girl was very intelligent and could pick up on things rather quickly. Sam knew when someone was truly interested in being her friend or if they were just pretending. He wasn’t going to stand for anyone harming his daughter.

  If this new nanny that Tony recommended didn’t work out then he wasn’t going to give up until he found the perfect person to watch over his baby girl. Samantha was the most important person in his life. She was the special part of the love he and Donna shared. He wasn’t going to allow anyone to mistreat her or make her feel like she wasn’t equal to anyone around her.

  Sam was trying to pretend that she was happy about the new nanny, but he could tell that she was a little nervous because the last woman was horrible to her. He wished he’d realized and fired her sooner.

  His daughter finally confessed to him that the former nanny would talk down to her all the time. He wished he’d known about it before she tried to seduce him because he would have kicked her out on her ass the same day the incident occurred in his home.

  As much as Clayton wanted to stay in bed longer he knew that he couldn’t because Sam would be home soon. He wanted to be dressed and ready so he could hear about her visit with her grandparents. Every time she came back from their house she would have some kind of funny story to tell him about her grandpapa. .

  Tossing the covers off, Clayton got out of the bed and made his way toward the bathroom for a shower. After he was done, he needed to go down to the stables and make sure everything was going okay with the new foal he’d purchased a couple of days ago.

  Tony would be able to fill him in on how well she was getting along with the other horses and if he needed to have the vet come and check her out. She was still fairly young, so he wouldn’t be able to breed her for a while but that was his intention.

  Before Donna died unexpectedly he spent most of his time helping other ranchers design and expand their land, but he just didn’t have the heart to watch other families achieve their dream when his world was falling apart around him. So he just turned his attention to his own property instead and put more time into raising Sam.

  At first, he had missed working with the community a lot but as the months turned into years, he got into a routine and he seldom thought about it anymore. Sam needed him more. She couldn’t have him around only at night while most of his days were filled with other people.

  In addition, his housekeeper Mrs. Jennings had left about three months after Donna died because she was getting older and the drive was getting too hard on her. The new housekeeper he got to take her place was doing an excellent job. Ms. Kennedy was a dream and he wouldn’t know what he would do without her. Now, if he got the same luck with his new nanny, Leila Hilson, his life would be almost perfect.

  Chapter Seven

  “Get out of here now!” The man yelling stood behind his desk. Red-faced, he jabbed the air with his finger. “I’m not going to listen to customer’s complaints about either one of you anymore. I should’ve known better than to hired the Hobbs to work at either one of my establishments. I haven’t heard anything good since the two of you started here. Now, my patience is over and so are your jobs. I’ll place your checks in the mail, so don’t bother coming by here looking for them.”

  “I don’t know who is accusing us of something but they’re lying,” Matt hollered back. “My brother didn’t take anything and neither did I. I don’t need this shit. I can buy my own stuff. They don’t bring anything good with them anyway. Why would I want to steal crap from them? I’ve enough of that at my own house.”

  “Matt, you aren’t known for telling the truth.” Mr. Dellison crossed his arms over his thick chest. “You’d already lost three jobs before your brother talked me into hiring you to work at the gas station.”

  “My brother isn’t a liar,” Jeff cut in. “We didn’t take anything from any of the dim-witted customers. Whoever said we did isn’t telling you the truth.”

  “No...You’re the one lying Jeff,” Mr. Dellison hollered dropping his arms. “I’ve two eye witnesses that said they saw you coming out of their room with a bag of stuff and your brother was shoving something into the front of his jeans. I thought by hiring the two of you with no questions asked I was showing you what a better life could look like, but I was wrong. No one can help the Hobbs brothers. The two of you are too far gone to know the difference between right and wrong anymore.”

  “Are they going to press charges against us?” Matt asked as he stepped closer to the desk glaring at Mr. Dellison.

  “I asked them to press charges, but they declined because they didn’t want to come back here for a trial. So I decided to fire the two of you instead. Now get out of my place of business before I have someone throw you and your brother out on our asses. Don’t let me see either one of you here again or you’ll be sorry.”

  “Don’t threaten us,” Jeff warned. “You don’t want to know what happened to the last guy that did it.”

  “Yeah, my brother hates when someone tries to tell him what to do,” Matt chimed in and then turned away. “Come on, let’s go Jeff, before I hurt this old man and end up back behind bars.”

  Jeff gave Mr. Dellison one last lingering look before he followed his brother to the door and then went out slamming it hard behind them.

  Outside in the hallway, Jeff finally lost his cool like he had been dying to do in his former boss’ office. “Shit! What are we going to do now?” he complained as he held back from punching his fist through a wall.

  “I told you we shouldn’t have stolen that key and broken into that room. I knew those two old people would turn us in to the boss. We’re almost out of money. How are we gonna live?”

  “You worry way too much,” Matt said patting his older brother on the shoulder. “I’
ve a plan for us and I think it’s going to be a very good one.”

  Frowning, Jeff watched Matt wondering what was going on. “What kind of plan? You know how much I hated to sit still or stay in one place for long.”

  “I think we need to go on a little road trip.”

  “What kind of road trip?” Jeff asked totally confused by what was going on.

  “We need to take some time to ourselves and pay a certain woman a visit”

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Jeff admitted. “Is she someone important to you? When did you start dating her? I thought I knew about all of the women in your life.”

  “She isn’t part of my life, but she will be sooner than she thinks.” Matt grinned. “You’ve met her. It’s the woman who was driving the white convertible yesterday. I haven’t been able to get her off my mind. I want her and I’ll get her.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Jeff gaped. “You know nothing about her. She’s a stranger to you. Hell, you don’t even know where she is.”

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong. Ms. Hilson was flirting with me and she told me that she was going to work for Clayton Moore. All I have to do is show up there and I can make the rest happen.” Matt grinned. “What woman can resist my charm?”

  “How in the hell do you know her name?” This situation was getting way out of hand and he had to put a stop to it before it went any further.

  “She gave me her credit card to pay for her gas and the other stuff I did at the gas station,” Matt answered. “Now, are you coming with me? I mean, I don’t have a problem going by myself, but I won’t miss out on the chance getting with her. Did you see how good she looked? I know her ass had to be amazing when she got out that car.”

  Jeff didn’t like the way his brother’s mind was going. His little brother had already gotten in trouble a couple of years ago for having an unhealthy relationship with a local woman and did some jail time for it. He thought Matt would’ve learned his lesson, but it didn’t see like he had.

  “I’m not sure about this,” Jeff answered.

  “Fine, stay here and waste time looking for a new job. I’m going after her and maybe I might be able to get a few things from Clayton Moore.” Matt shot his brother a sly look. “I thought you would jump at the chance to get him back after the way he treated you. I wouldn’t have stood for him talking to me like that, but you’ve always been the spineless one when it came to us.”

  “Fuck you! I’m not spineless and I’m not scared of Clayton Moore either. That old man should’ve known better than to call me out like that. I was going to confront him then and there, but there were too many people around.”

  Jeff hadn’t forgotten how the rancher yelled at him for shoving his ugly daughter out of the way when they were in town a few weeks ago. It wasn’t his fault that the girl was moving like she was walking in quick sand.

  “Does that mean we’re going to Blue Horn ranch? I can take care of my woman while you get some revenge on him. I think it’s the perfect plan for the both of us.” Matt waited giving him time to think over his answer, but he already knew what he was going to do.

  “Let’s go. I’ve a few things to get off my chest with Moore. He’s going to regret calling me out the way he did.” Jeff brushed past his brother and headed for the old rusty blue truck parked at the side of the street.

  Chapter Eight

  Sitting on his favorite black stallion, King, Clayton patted the side of the animal’s neck as he looked down on his property. Blue Horn was a picturesque and authentic western cattle ranch that had taken him years to make come true with a lot of sweat, tears and hard work. He almost lost it once right after Donna’s death, but he pulled himself back together and saved his property because he had to leave something for his little girl to inherit.

  Offers had come in over the years from other ranchers and businessmen to buy the land because of the excellent fly-fishing and hunting aspects. But he always turned them down because there wasn’t a price in the world he would accept for Blue Horn; it was priceless in his opinion with its rivers, streams, ponds, springs and diverse terrain.

  The ranch presented a wonderful blend of gentle sloping fields along the river that was lined with Cottonwood, open grass pastures stretching to the horizon that was home to elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer and even a few turkey and pheasants. No, Blue Horn ranch was his daughter’s future and he would never get rid of it for anything the world.

  For him this was his favorite time of day to come out and look over everything because Sam was with her tutor, so he knew that she was in good hands. Sometimes, he still had a hard time admitting to himself that he was truly alone now.

  A while back he thought he might have found a woman to fill a part of the loneliness in his heart, but Annie turned out to be a deceitful bitch who only wanted him and not his child. How could he ever consider putting a ring on her finger? He was just glad that she showed her true colors before any walk down the aisle. It would have been the biggest mistake of his life and one that would have taken a lot of money to get rid of.

  Clayton could stay up here on the hill all day, but he had to get back down to the ranch. Paperwork was piled up on his desk and tonight was movie night for him and Sam, so he wanted to be done with everything in time.

  Last week, he’d had to cancel their regular movie night because he had to take a conference call and that was the only time the client could do it. Sam had been so disappointed, but she’d played alone in her room instead and then later they’d had ice cream in the kitchen. He knew that he spoiled her too much, but he couldn’t help it. She was the only bright light in his life.

  “Come on boy,” he said patting King again. “We need to head back home.” As Clayton turned away from the hill, he caught the sound of noise off in the distance. King’s ears even perked up at the intrusion.

  Clayton’s eyes scanned the distance for a few seconds until he found the faint image of a car coming down the long dirt road that led to Blue Horn. As the car got closer, he noticed it was a white convertible, but he couldn’t make out the driver.

  Who in the world was on his property? Did the person see the No Trespassing sign posted right outside the gate? It was there for a reason. He didn’t like strangers on his property for any reason. He didn’t care if the driver needed directions or something.

  Damn it!

  This was the last thing he wanted to deal with this afternoon. So the person better get ready for an earful because he wasn’t in the mood to be nice or even cordial for that matter.

  Turning King around, he went back down the hill hoping to stop the person before they had a chance to get completely on his property and disturb his workers.

  ****

  Leila turned down the sound of Tina Turner singing Humpty Dumpty as she got closer to the property. She didn’t want to make a bad first impression on her boss and playing loud music might just do that, especially if he wasn’t a fan of the legendary singer.

  She hadn’t noticed too many people as she drove down the long dusty road. The only person she’d spotted was someone sitting on top of a hill a little ways back and from the body build she would guess it was a man, but she wasn’t completely sure.

  She couldn’t let herself get sidetracked because she had to make sure she got to keep this job. Once Clayton Moore saw her, he could tell her to leave without a second thought because the two of them had never met before and he was only taking Tony’s word that she would be an excellent nanny for his little girl.

  What if this guy wasn’t as nice as Ms. Thurston and her son led her to believe? Or what if he really was as unpleasant and offensive as the guy from the gas station described him. She couldn’t go back home as a failure because she had promised everyone she was going to make something out of her life. This was her time to break out of her shell and she was going to do it.

  Really...how mean could a man with a little girl be?

  She knew Tony wouldn’t put her in a
situation that she wouldn’t be able to handle.

  Leila drove further onto the land and parked her car in the rock paved driveway. She got out, slamming the door behind and was headed toward the front door of the house that looked like something out of Dallas.

  She was halfway there when the sound of a horse running behind her stopped her and made her spin around. Her heart leaped in her throat as a huge black stallion came to a standstill mere inches from her. She didn’t know which was more threatening: the tall, overpowering man on the back with his black Stetson pulled down over his eyes or the massive animal staring right at her.

  “What are you doing on this property?” he growled in a deep voice that sent shivers through her body making Leila take a sudden step back. She couldn’t determine if it was out of fear or shock. “Can you not read? Or did you just completely ignore the No Trespassing sign I had posted by the gate?”

  “I didn’t see any sign,” Leila answered staring up at the man who still hadn’t pushed his hat back enough so she could see his eyes. If she took a wild guess, she’d bet they were as black as his mood.

  “Don’t know how you missed it. It’s white with big red letters.”

  “Sir, like I said earlier there wasn’t a sign there and if it was I would’ve still driven past it because I’m supposed to be here.”

  “Oh really,” the guy said leaning across the saddle. He finally pushed up his Stetson and Leila was taken aback by how dark blue his eyes were. They were a shade darker than the sky above them. “Why do you think that you have the right to be here, young lady?”

  Crossing her arms over her breasts, Leila swallowed down a nasty comment. She usually didn’t take an instant dislike to someone, but this man was pushing her buttons and she would be glad when he was out of her face.

  “I’m here to see Clayton Moore.” She watched how his eyes narrowed into slits and wondered once again what in the hell his problem was.